Pet Care Frequently Asked Questions

With so many diets available on the market today for dogs and cats, it is difficult to make a well-informed decision about what to feed our pets. Many factors must be evaluated before choosing a diet. We must consider the age of the pet, weight, body condition and heath status to determine the nutritional needs of the animal. We can then evaluate diets based on the requirements for that individual pet.

We carry the complete line of Hill's Prescription Diet food for both dogs and cats. This page will give a brief description of each specific diet.

Prescription Diet a/d

Is our Recovery/Hospitalization diet. Highly palatable and nutrient dense, this diet is often used to entice our sick dogs and cats to eat.

Prescription Diet c/d

An acidifying diet for dogs and cats who need an acid pH for urinary tract health.

Prescription Diet d/d

Uses Novel Proteins, which are proteins not normally used in pet food, for dogs and cats who have food allergies to specific proteins.

Prescription Diet g/d

Our Geriatric diet. Many dogs and cats develop kidney insufficiencies as they mature. This diet restricts proteins, phosphorous and sodium while increasing B vitamins to reduce the kidney's workload.

Prescription Diet h/d

The Heart diet has reduced levels of sodium, chloride, protein, and phosphorous to support dogs and cats with heart disease.

Prescription Diet i/d

Most of our clients are familiar with this Intestinal diet. We use this highly digestible diet in both dogs and cats for many gastrointestinal problems including diarrhea and pancreatitis.

Prescription Diet k/d

Another Kidney diet. This diet is much more restrictive than g/d and is used primarily for dogs and cats suffering from kidney failure.

Prescription Diet L/d

Our Liver diet reduces the liver's workload in dogs and cats by maintaining proper ratios of amino acids, vitamins and electrolytes.

Prescription Diet n/d

For dogs only, our new Cancer diet isn't designed to cure the cancer but to reverse the metabolic abnormalities, which occur in dogs with cancer. Hill's researched this diet for 14 years and found that, very basically, tumors prefer carbohydrates for energy and by reducing the carbohydrates in the food and increasing the fat for energy, you feed the dog and starve the tumor. This diet has been shown to increase survival time and improves the quality of life for dogs with cancer.

Prescription Diet r/d

If you have an overweight pet, this is the diet for her. This fat restricted, high fiber diet is usually used in conjunction with a weight loss program.

Prescription Diet s/d

The Struvite diet. When the urine pH becomes too alkaline, crystals can form. Struvites are common crystals found in dog and cat urinary tracts. The crystals can become life-threatening in male cats by blocking the outflow of urine. This diet can only be used temporarily and is used for acidifying the urine and dissolving the crystals.

Prescription Diet t/d

Probably the best pet food ever made. Our Tartar diet has a specially designed fiber matrix, which flosses the dog and cat's teeth when the teeth embed into the kibble reducing the amount of bacteria and tartar buildup on the teeth. This is an adult maintenance diet and can be fed to most healthy adult pets. It is also a high fiber diet which has many benefits as well; the pet feels fuller allowing for weight loss if needed and creates smaller stools to pick up in the yard to name a few.

Prescription Diet u/d

For dogs only, this diet is also a Urinary diet. For dogs which require an alkaline urine pH due to crystals and stones that have developed in an acidic pH.

Prescription Diet w/d

This high fiber diet is used for many different conditions in dogs and cats. Used for weight management, diabetes, colitis, constipation, struvite prevention and more.

Prescription Diet z/d

Last but not least, our new food allergy diet. This diet is used in dogs and cats with food related problems. Smaller protein chains are used which cannot cause a histamine or allergic response. Remember to always transition your pet over to another diet SLOWLY. Many pets experience digestive problems, diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite or plain old finickiness if introduced to new food too quickly.

Parasites are a great concern with our pets, interfering with their quality of life and exposing them to health complications which can include diarrhea, vomiting, heart problems, skin infections, and death. By definition, parasites feed off our pets in order to survive.

Canine heartworm disease
Heartworm disease is transmitted by common mosquitoes. The mosquito deposits the heartworm larva into the dog, the larva then migrates to the heart where they mature to adult worms. The adult worms can reach the length of 14 inches and can number more than 30 in a single dog heart. Signs of the disease include coughing, lethargy, vomiting, exercise intolerance or no signs in the early stages. The disease is potentially fatal and the treatment dangerous. Heartworm prevention, which we highly recommend, consists simply of an annual blood test and a monthly oral tablet.

Feline heartworm disease

Cats become infected by mosquitoes too, however, fewer worms survive in the cat's heart. Because of the fewer number of worms, clinical signs are often not present. Most infected cats remain asymptomatic until sudden death of the cat occurs and heartworms are found on the postmortem exam. A simple blood test can determine if your cat has the worms, but isn't required prior to beginning Heartworm prevention. There is no FDA approved treatment at this time for cats and indoor cats are susceptible to the disease.

Intestinal Parasites

Hookworms
Hookworms attach to the dog or cat's intestinal lining with hook-like teeth. The worms feed on the pet's blood. Pets can be infected by ingesting the eggs in soil, ingesting larvae during nursing via mother's milk, or by skin penetration. Sentinel® and Interceptor® prevent Hookworms in dogs.

Whipworms
Whipworms live in the dogs' large intestine and cecum. They can cause diarrhea, weight loss and dehydration. The eggs are difficult to detect in stool samples so the disease is difficult to diagnose. Continued use of Sentinel® and Interceptor® provides protection against this parasite.

Roundworms
Roundworms are very common in dogs and cats. They live in the small intestine and feed on the pets' blood. Infection occurs with ingestion of eggs in the soil or mother's milk during nursing. Again, dogs are protected with continued use of Sentinel® and Interceptor®.

Tapeworms
Tapeworms are found in dogs and cats. Usually the infection is detected by the pet owner noticing a white, rice-like worm in the stool. The tapeworm larvae is introduced into the pet when the pet ingests an infected flea. The tapeworm matures, lives in the small intestine and then sheds egg packets and segments. The only prevention is to rid the pet of its fleas.

Giardia
Dogs and cats become infected by ingesting immature forms of the parasite in the environment, usually contaminated water. The trophozoites, protozoa, attach to the small intestine and cause diarrhea. Reduce access to standing or slow-flowing water to prevent. Treatment is a course of an intestinal antibiotic.

External Parasites

Flea
The archenemy of our pets, the flea just loves our South Texas weather and can be found on our pets year-round. When the flea bites our pets and takes its blood meal, it injects a small amount of saliva into the skin. The saliva causes an inflammatory reaction and an allergic reaction in pets suffering from FAD, Flea Allergy Dermatitis. The more the pet scratches the itchy spots, the more the affected areas itch. Hot Spots- hairless, raw, often runny infections are common. Luckily, Advantage® works exceptionally well at killing the little blood-suckers and improving our pets quality of life.

Ticks
Speaking of blood-suckers, Ticks attach to the dog or cats' skin and feed. Ticks can carry Lyme disease, Erlichia and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, potentially dangerous diseases which can cause death in dogs. South Texas is home to many species of Ticks and prevention is a simple topical monthly treatment.

(Never use a hot match head to remove the tick, apply rubbing alcohol or a safe pyrethrin product to the tick, wait for it to back its head out of the skin, then using tweezers, pull the tick out by the head. Never touch the tick with your bare hands, you too are susceptible to tick-borne diseases.)

Animal Friends Humane Society; is always looking for donations and volunteers. Our hospital like help as much as we can but there is only so much we can do. They have homeless pets who would like to meet you.

Guide Dogs of Texas; Southwest Guide Dog Foundation is a non-profit organization with whom we are proud to be associated with. They host a Dog Walk in San Antonio annually to benefit their Guide Dogs Program.

Guide Dogs of Texas is always looking for Puppy Walker Families and donated puppies. Criteria for donated puppies includes:

• Must be one of the following breeds: Golden Retrievers, Laborador Retrievers or German Shepherds
• Parents of puppies must be registered with either AKC or UKC
• Parents must be OFA certified, free of dysplasia or equivalent
• Parents must be CERF (Canine Eye Registration Foundation) certified or equivalent
• Puppies accepted between 6 and 10 weeks of age, after a preliminary aptitude test and physical

For More Information:

Guide Dogs of Texas; Southwest Guide Dog Foundation

P.O. Box 691582. San Antonio, Texas. 78269

Telephone: 210-366-4081